Sir Yue-Kong Pao CBE JP (; 10 November 1918 — 23 September 1991), is the founder of Hong Kong's Worldwide Shipping Group which in the 20 years from purchasing its first used ship in 1955 became by far the largest shipping company in the world with over . Anticipating the seriousness of the shipping downturn starting in the late 1970s, he drastically reduced his fleet and was able to pay off associated debt and raise cash to diversify his interests notably through the purchase of a controlling stake in The Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company Limited (now known as Wharf (Holdings)) and later Wheelock Marden giving exposure to Hong Kong real estate, shipping terminals, retail, ferries, and trams. He was noted for his unmatched access to leaders in both the commercial and political arenas and was equally at ease with Western political leaders and the Chinese leadership in the run-up to Hong Kong's ceasing to be a British colony in 1997 (for example Margaret Thatcher wrote the foreword to his biography published in 1990 and he was appointed a Vice-Chairman of the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee planning Hong Kong's constitution after 1997). He was also a generous philanthropist notably in educational projects (helping set up universities, libraries, and scholarship schemes). He died in 1991 but his corporate legacy continues to be controlled and run by his family.
Early life
Pao was born in 1918 in Ningbo, the third of seven children of an upper-middle-class family. He was a 29th-generation descendant of Bao Zheng. In 1931, he went to Hankou to work in his father's shoe manufacturing business whilst continuing his education at night. However, he decided that the shoe business did not suit him and he secured a traineeship with a foreign insurance company. By the age of twenty, he was established in his new position and married his wife Huang Sue-Ing, who was chosen by his parents.
In 1937, Hankou came under attack from the Japanese, and Pao along with 70 colleagues moved to Hunan and then Shanghai whilst leaving his wife in the relative safety of Ningbo. As tension eased, he sent for his wife to join him.
Career
In the late 1930s in Shanghai, Pao found a position in the insurance department of the Central Trust of China. Pao was soon moving up the corporate ladder, moving into the area of banking, and moving to Hengyang and Chongqing as the progress of the war dictated.
In 1945, at the end of the war, he was sent by the Government back to Shanghai to help set up and manage the new Municipal Bank and in a short time had worked his way to Deputy general manager, effectively in charge.
Move to Hong Kong
With the approaching fall of the "Bamboo Curtain", Pao and all his family had moved to Hong Kong by the spring of 1949, having managed to remit much of the family's assets and money before events made it impossible. It was impossible to resume a banking career and, given the prevailing uncertainties, he did not wish to commit to investing in machinery and land in Hong Kong, so Pao started an Import/Export business dealing in Chinese goods. Following the UN trade embargo resulting from China's entry into the Korean War, the company broadened its scope to Europe, although trade with China continued in a circuitous way through skilful exploitation of legal loopholes in the embargo. It was during the first half of the 1950s that Pao first made contact with Jake Saunders (who was running the Imports Department) and Guy Sayer (also working in the department) at the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Both were later to become Chief Manager and Chairman of the bank, and the relationship was to be a decisive element in the growth of Pao's businesses.
Founding of World-Wide Shipping
As his business grew, Pao looked around for suitable new ventures and in 1955 decided to branch into shipping (still focusing on assets that were not fixed in Hong Kong) and embarked on an intensive learning process. Shipowning in Hong Kong had a poor reputation at that time with the banks and so the first vessel, a 28-year-old coal burning 8,200 tonne freighter, was purchased without finance. Having seen this and the rigorousness employed by Pao in the purchase process, the Hongkong Bank extended a loan for the second purchase, the start of long and fruitful relationship which led to Pao being appointed to the board of the bank in 1971 and later to become its vice-chairman.